Most of the time I use the government rate, which can be used for business or personal travel as long as you have a valid ID. This is not always the lowest rate, so for my personal travel I always check the AAA, Senior, and promotional rates. The government rate is usually the cheapest and is cancelable 2 days ahead of checkin depending on property.

I qualify for senior, military/government, and AAA rates. In the USA the Government rate is usually the the best, when it is available, Overseas, I seem to do better with AAA or senior rates. I always check for the best available refundable rate and take it.

Working for the airline, I've sometimes used the TVL travel industry rate. It's not a big discount, but it changes the cancellation terms so that you can cancel up until check-in time cutoff without penalty. The problem is no points and no choice of room - only least desirable room. You have to email the hotel to try to pay extra for a better room/amenities with the same cancellation terms.

Usually 5 dollars more than MR rate but bonus points tied to the rate. In the places i stay most often i can almost always find 4-5 properties with this promo rate. Its usually between 2000-3000 bonus points, occasionally 5000 or more but that's not typical.

Trick is getting the property to post them, 9 of 10 times I have to call at least once a few days after the normal stay points post to get them to post, gets confusing and irritating, but points is points, right?

It's incredibly rare I book a room "off the rack" as it were. Most every room I book is tied to a corporate rate unless the prevailing MR member rate is cheaper...but that's less than 5-10% of the time.

I almost always use the Senior rate as it is usually best. Always check AAA and MR member rates as in retirement I do not qualify for other rates, but Senior usually comes up best . The one thing I won't do at any hotel is a pre-paid Advance Purchase rate. Never worth the risk of plans changing, at least for me.

I voted other because I use multiple rates. Typically the AAA rate, but I also look for promo rates offered by the individual hotels. I'm not old enough to join you geezers on here for the one foot in the grave rate (Sr.)...but I'm getting there!!!

And why is it that you have to choose one rate at a time?. With most chains, including SPG, you can check multiple rates at one time, With Marriott, you request one discounted rate and search, Next, you check another rate and search, You continue until you have seen all the discounts for which you qualify, With SPG, you can request up to four different rates at once and see which is the cheapest. I qualify for senior, AAA, and Federal Government rates. It annoys me to have to do three searches to get the best rate.

Variety of rates to use: pay in advance if I know 100% I will be confirmed to be there, AAA is perhaps the default, my wife is a government employee so if she is with me then government rate, and sometimes a corporate rate. All of it is variable by season and situation.

In my experience the government rate is usually the best. It is unavailable at high profile popular properties if you do not book it several weeks out. I have had success in booking with the AAA rate and calling the property on the way (i.e. driving to New Orleans or the like) and requesting the government rate, due to the usual cancellations, I have had success in getting the lower government rate on the day of arrival. If not I'm still booked with AAA or whatever rate I had. Just a tip, no guarantees.changing_rates

At places I used to travel to often as in repeat stays, if we couldn't book the gov't rate via the website a simple call to the property telling them we would be back in force (6-10 rooms for 11 nights) they'd always accommodate us all on the gov't rate. Don't forget to use the phone at times!

I voted other as well. I use AAA, Senior or Member's Rate and see which one provides the best rate. I have better success overseas with Member's rate and in the U.S. the Senior or AAA rate has provided better results.

I chose "other" because I have used various rates from the list - One major wish is that Marriott would adopt the capability on the SPG search engine to include multiple special rates in your search at once. Since I qualify for a few different, it complicates my personal travel searches because I sometimes need to perform 2-3 extra searches to find the best rate. Although my corporate often provides the lowest, I've been finding AAA special rates that beat it in a few locations. And Oh yeah - Let me put my AAA card number in my profile so I don't have to pull the wallet out to search or book with the AAA rate? Seriously... easy fix to an irritant as you try to book